THE ISSUE: Atlantis’ return from space, marking the end of the US shuttle program.

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We don’t have liftoff (“Goodbye, Atlantis,” PostOpinion, Arthur Herman, July 21).

When I was really young, I put a Gemini sticker on one of my bicycles. NASA’s Gemini was between Mercury and Apollo.

It must be depressing to be young in America today. Instead of lunar landings, all we read about in the news is how broke we are.

Will the end of

our space-shuttle program also go down in history as the moment when America officially stopped being a great country?

Joseph Briglia

Toms River, NJ

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Words can’t express my disappointment in seeing the end of our shuttle program.

Equally disappointing is that no country acknowledged NASA’s decades-long contribution to mankind.

Every single discovery and/or development was shared with the world — yet the world can’t even say thanks.

Beth Snyder

Traverse City, Mich.

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Welcome home to the US space shuttle from its last voyage.

Alas, now the space program is really out of space.

The vertical voyage of the future is apt to be only in cyberspace.

Susan Marie Davniero

Lindenhurst